Alien: What Does It Means To Be Human

What does it mean to be human? Simply it means to make decisions not always based on logic or reason, or the decision is made based on emotion. This is an interesting question that is brought up in Ridley Scott’s movie Alien (1979). The crew of the Nostromo for the most part appears to be human, but through their actions it makes one wonder if they are actually humans or if they are simply robots. They have gone to such a point that human life has seemingly been devalued in order to complete the task at hand. Such concepts are also explored within T.J Matheson’s (1992) “Triumphant Technology and Minimal Man: The Technological Society, Science Fiction Films and Ridley Scott’s Alien” where he talks about the similar idea of a devalued human life by these for the most part robots. At this point one would have to wonder if there is any shred of humanity left in this crew. For the most part that shred is all that actually exists of humanity in the crew. For a majority of the movie decisions are based on things like protocol or rules or laws that have been set, rarely by emotion. In one scene after the character Kane is attacked by the face hugger, upon reentry into the Nostromo, Ripley won’t let them into the ship quoting proper
As Matheson (1999) states, many of the negative things that happen to the crew are brought upon by their utter dependence on technology. Which was shown to be as effective in saving the “space jockey” in a foreshadowing motif. When they are trying to track the Xenomorph after it had burst forth from Kane’s chest they end up finding the cat that is on board to the ship, which then leads to Brett’s death. Dallas’ death shortly after is also due to a technological failure in attempts of tracking the monster. This dependence on technology hampered the abilities of the crew to rationally think or to deal with problems when the technology failed